Disasters - a growing problem around the world.It's a fact - disasters are on the rise around the world. According to one estimate, the 1990s saw a tripling of disasters and a nine-fold increase in economic costs when compared with the 1960s. Climate change,earthquake,floods,storm increasing concentrations of people in vulnerable areas, and political and economic instability are all contributing factors.
The challenge is - how do we deal with this growing dilemma?

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Monday, December 16, 2013

Blogger takes auto to avoid 'creepy' men at Bandra, gets robbed by driver

Parts With 10,000 At Knifepoint; Cops Examine CCTV Footage

In yet another instance of how unsafe Mumbai's streets are for women at night, a Santa Cruz resident hopped on to an autorickshaw after noticing suspicious-looking men outside Bandra Gymkhana only to be robbed by the auto driver at knifepoint late on Sunday. Worse, the crime took place on the busy Linking Road in Santa Cruz (West). The Santa Cruz police have registered a case of robbery and are trying to ascertain the licence number of the auto with the help of CCTV footage captured at various spots between Bandra and Santa Cruz. "We have got some footage from Bandra which shows the auto but its number is not visible," said Arun Chavan, senior police inspector, Santa Cruz police station. Cops have approached a technical expert who is helping them trace the number from the footage. The victim, Anisha Bangera, a blogger and content writer who is in her 20s, tweeted about the crime on Monday. Her followers have advised her to carry a pepper spray from now on. Bangera, who had gone to attend a wedding at Bandra, boarded an auto around 11pm to reach her Santa Cruz (West) residence off Linking Road. The driver did take the Linking Road towards Santa Cruz, but instead of turning into her lane, he sped on and took her to a relatively isolated stretch on the road to commit the crime, said D O Jadhav, ACP Santa Cruz (division). The driver stopped the auto by the roadside, fished out a knife from his money bag and told her to part with her valuables. She handed over Rs 10,000 cash from her purse and got off. As the accused did not snatch her mobile phone, she called a friend for help and then approached Santa Cruz police to file an FIR. The police immediately alerted the control room and launched a nakabandi in the locality to catch the auto driver, but in vain. A shocked Bangera was unable to note down the auto's number, said the police and added that since there was no CCTV at the crime spot, they are examining the footage from various points between Bandra and Santa Cruz. The police have also started preparing a sketch of the accused with the help of the description provided by the victim; there was not a single eyewitness to the crime. The police said no such case of auto theft has been reported from the area in the past and they have now increased patrolling in the locality.